bill: guys, thank you. want to get to a fox news alert now. a deadly workplace shooting in minneapolis. police say a gunman opened fire at a business that killed four and turned the gun on himself. one. victims reportedly the owner of that company. witnesses describe the scene as chaotic. >> at about four or five shots it seemed like. then there was a little pause. i heard a couple two or three more shots. sounded like maybe pretty powerful gun. bill: what we're learning about this today. we'll get a live report a bit later today here in our show. first i want to start with this ongoing story. there are new questions as a

chorus of lawmakers demand answers from the white house on the deadly assault on the consulate in libya. we learned more by the day on that. i'm bill hemmer. welcome on a friday edition of "america's newsroom.". martha: good morning. welcome everybody at home. i'm martha maccallum. for days the obama administration insisted the assault was a protest that got out of hand. fox news confirmed u.s. intelligence did indeed know it was a terror attack of 24 hours of that evening. bill: yesterday the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the defense secretary finally statedding the obvious. >> it was a terrorist attack. as we determined details of what took place there and how that attack took place that it became clear there were terrorists who planned that attack. that's when i came to that conclusion. >> day after or was -- >> took a while to really get some of the feedback from what exactly happened

at that location. >> there was a thread of intelligence reporting that groups in the environment in western, correction, eastern libya, were seeking to coalesce but there wasn't anything specific. bill: well, peter doocy is live in washington drilling down on the specifics. peter, if the administration knew it was terrorist attack in 24 hours, why did they not just say that? >> reporter: we heard from administration officials there is ongoing investigation and more details will come out after it wraps up. we learned yesterday not one fbi agent has stepped foot in fwauz gauze in the 17 days since the attack because things are too dangerous. u.s. officials internally labeled the deadly raid on the consulate within a day so they could unlook military force it fight the terrorists.

administration is stalled and defending their decision to initially deny what happened in benghazi was a terrorist attack with press secretary jay carney saying yesterday every step of the way the information that we have provided to you and the general public about the attack in benghazi has been based on the best intelligence we've had and the assessments of our intelligence community. carney also told reporters even though the president still not publicly called this a terrorist attack, since he is are obama's spokesman, and he gave it that label we should all know what the commander-in-chief thinks it was. bill: so now we're hearing from democrats who demand answers from the administration. what are they saying, peter? >> reporter: 10 democrats and nine republicans on the senate foreign relations committee chaired by democrat john kerry wrote the state department, they want to know if the u.s. had any intelligence a possible attack and if security forces assigned to our missions were well-equipped and what the forces did to protect personnel when they

came under fire. one republican on the committee says the story right now just does not add up. >> the responses have been, have been varying degrees of what's happened. we have not been told clearly what has happened and i think the window has closed. now this is turning into something not short of benghazi-gate. >> reporter: many leaders on capitol hill were briefed by intel and administration officials days after the attack but were told the focus of the briefings was the anti-islam video, not terrorism and some of those leaders are not pleased about that. bill: i bet. peter doocy following that today on a friday. thanks. martha. martha: a majority of people are not happy with the way president obama handled the situation in libya. look at brand new fox news polls we've got in. 43% of likely voters say they disapprove how the white house dealt with the story surrounding this whole attack. 39% say they approve and 17% are still unsure what they

think about the whole thing. we'll have more on that later. this fox news alert for you. we are just getting word republican presidential nominee, governor mitt romney will speak with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu at some point today. president obama has taken heavy criticism not meeting with netanyahu while he was in the states to visit the general assembly. he drew a line making a case that iran is reaching nuclear point of no return but netanyahu laid out his vision for peace in the region. >> we want to see the three great religions that sprang fourth from our region, judaism, christianity and islam coexist in peace and mutual respect. yet the medieval forces of rad call islam who you saw storming american embassies of the middle east, they oppose this. they seek supremacy over all

muslims. martha: david lee miller live at the united nations. david, what has been the reaction to that speech? >> reporter: martha one thing worth noting soon after prime minister netanyahu spoke mitt romney issued a statement essentially endorsing and echoing the remarks of the prime minister. romney joined the prime minister's call for a middle east progress of peace and he joined the call to prevent what he called the gravest threat. by that he meant a nuclear armed iran. now yesterday the israeli prime minister met with secretary of state hillary clinton. the u.s. position has remained the same though. the united states saying that it is not drawing any red lines. secretary clinton saying we are not setting any deadline. she also said the sanctions seem to be having an effect. martha, again worth noting, one israeli official speaking in jerusalem is fearful that the iranians may take some comfort in the u.s. position and may use

the u.s. position to buy more time, possibly to build a nuclear bomb. martha? martha: that is troublesome. also syria, of course is such a part of this whole die namic. that is on the agenda at the u.n. what do we expect there? >> reporter: that's right. there will be a meeting today sort of on the sidelines of the general assembly. it will be hosted by secretary of state hillary clinton. it is a meeting of the friends of syria. it will be attended by ministers of some 20 countries. the purpose of this meeting essentially to show support for the syrian opposition and to address the humanitarian concerns. the risch shan foreign minister is going to speak today. likely he will talk about syria. the russian foreign minister said yesterday russia is not going to offer asylum to the syrian president, bashar assad if that is sought. he also said russia is not pressuring assad to step down. martha, one statistic that is very disturbing. since monday, since the start of the general assembly this week, 489

people have been killed in syria because of that ongoing conflict. today we'll hear russia address it but unlikely we'll see any resolution anytime soon. martha: tragic and press, pressing event and on going store. david lee, thank you very much. bill:. dmort fox news alert. fiscal model is in place for parts of europe. france's new socialist government unveiling plans for a 75% super tax. stuart varney host of "varney & company", fox business network. glad you're happy you left 35 years ago. what's up? >> germany is telling france hey, you got to get that budget deficit under control, big budget deficit is verboten the socialist president of france, francois hollande, tax the rich, not so rich, capital gains, profits, you name it, there will be a big new tax. on upper end of income every dollar over a certain level

the french government will take 75 cents. rip it right out of your hand. 75 cents on the dollar. more than $200,000, they take 45 cents on the dollar, almost half. bill, this is a massive gamble because france's economy is dead flat, teetering on recession. 10-year high for unemployment and france puts in place huge tax increases. bill: i'm reading the two measures bringing around half a billion euros. >> that's it. >> what will that do for them? >> not much. there are other taxes as well which will bring in a total they think of 20 billion euros. bill: higher tax rates on dividends? >> dividends, capital gains, dividends, profits, reinvestment of capital, interest you name it. bill: here is a query for you. are they cutting spending at all? >> by about $10 billion euros. $20 billion worth of tax increases. $10 billion worth of spending cuts gives you a 30 billion euro reduction they think in the budget deficit.

bill: well on the spending cuts, how much resistance was there? >> there is going to be a lot of resistance. in france there is really a cradle to grave security system and the state is at the very center of the economy. when the state starts cutting into to spending, cutting down on spending, there will be some resistance and it will be seen on the streets. bill: do you expect the wealthy to flee? >> yes. france will no longer be a capital of financial business. those people will move to london where the high tax rate is much lower. and the francois hollande will not exempt football soccer stars. so they will pay it a as well. they may migrate to other european teams where the tax rate is lower. bill: makes sense. stuart, see you 10 minutes on fbn. have a great weekend. >> i will. bill: bye-bye. martha: we'll see how this works out for them based on what stuart is telling us. france's newest income tax rate proposal puts it at the top of the list of countries

with highest individual tax rates. as stuart was just saying that may cause a fleeing of many people from france. britain and japan also up there. they have 50% top tax rates. the u.s. has a 35% rate for the highest brookket. bill: how about that? good cheese and good bread. martha: a lot to pay for it. bill: by the way, how dark is it outside here? martha: it is pouring rain behind us in new york city. bill: like dark at night. martha: you can stay in here with us too and keep dry. we have a packed show ahead of us here. this question for you this morning, is there a bias in the media against governor romney? we'll show you some very interesting takes on this. voters are now speaking out about it and we've got a a fair and balances debate on it straight ahead. bill: what about policies coming out of washington and the white house? are they working whether the economy or the middle east? what needs to change? mike huckabee is here on that today. martha: how about this? lawmakers now from both sides of the aisle are

demanding some answers from the white house. what happened that night in benghazi and why was the white house so reluctant to call it terrorism? some are seriously questioning the president's foreign policy. you will be surprised who they are. >> he does not understand american exceptionalism. he does not believe that america should lead. and all of these things flow from that. ♪ you do ♪ something to me ♪ that nobody else could do

martha: well it was a heroes welcome for the nfl's real referees. watch. >> the regular officials are back. this was the scene an hour ago as they came out of the tunnel to a standing ovation. martha: this is great, right? did you see, look at this. hello, we're home. we're back. they returned to the field as they said there. standing ovation at last night's baltimore-ravens, cleveland browns game. the lead referee said it was good to be back. the cheers from the

baltimore crowd quickly turned to boos. when the refs made a call ends if the home team. things were pretty much back to normal. there was no headline making gaffe like the touchdown call by the replacements as we like to call them during monday's green bay-seattle game. bill: i thought they would give them slack until sunday afternoon. first quarter at baltimore. essential question for the campaign of the president. stay the course with president obama or go with governor romney. brand new fox polling shows this. a largely percentage of the likely voters believe the country's policies need to change. governor mike huckabee, former governor of arkansas and host of "huckabee". what does that tell you? >> it shows how dissatisfied people are. when you get to 75%, who is the 25% who thinks we're

doing things right? where do they get their information? but it's bad news because it shows that this is not a partisan divide. you have independents, democrats and republicans that have to somehow make up that 75%. so it's clear whatever the policies are of the obama administration, they're not popular. bill: when you look at this phrase, many policies, that could be a number about of things in all honesty. >> sure. bill: what i think it tells you more than anything people are not happy. that goes to kind of a right track wrong track thing. >> why would they be happy? gasoline prices are twice what they were. national debt is skyrocketed to a point where they know they're hering. real earning power is down $3,000 per household that is down. not just stagnant. we're losing ground. people in the working class of this country know that. 8.7% decline in the capacity of earning between, for those 24 to 35-year-olds. those that had hope and

dreams who voted for obama four years ago. they're seeing their economic futures decimated. there is a lot of people look at the overall picture, foreign policy, domestic policy, energy prices, job market, debt situation and something is not on track. that's what we're seeing. bill: this also stand out too. in our polling. when asked, which candidate would likely take the lead on world events, keep in mind what is happening with libya and throughout the arab world, governor romney is at 52%. president obama is at 36%. what explains that? >> i think it is explained explicitly what happened over last several weeks with libya and egypt and 30 other capitals where our embassies were targeted for attack. let's get blunt. no way to sugar coat this. we have been flat-out lied to. they know they lied. as if airplanes crashing into the world trade center said those were just accidents.

anybody with two eyes and iq of plant life knows what happened in libya was not spontaneous reaction to a 13 minute video on youtube. it was a planned orchestrated attack led by terrorists, terrorists, bill. and this white house has to explain why it hasn't owned up to that. why it can't say it. i think frankly, if this issue really gets traction that it deserves, and let it say it deserves, go back. richard nixon was forced out of office because he lied. and because he covered some stuff up. i will be blunt and tell you this. nobody died in watergate. we have people who are dead because of this. there are questions to be answered and americans ought to demand to get answers. and it doesn't matter what the policies are. bill: you're 30 days out from here, under 40 days. how does libya factor in the national discussion? >> the bigger issue is not just what happened in libya. that is huge.

the fact that an ambassador was assassinated is huge. the bigger issue, why didn't this white house, why did not this administration all of its various surrogates tell us the truth? they knew the truth. they just didn't tell it. and they have covered it up. in the same way they didn't tell us the truth about the fort hood shooter and didn't tell us the truth about the shooter in little rock who killed a soldier standing outside of a recruiting station. there is much to be held, they should be held accountable for and i hope the romney campaign will do it. bill: just one more thing here. what you're describing, comparing events of today to watergate. >> i sure am. bill: which suggest as constant drip, drip, drip and a lingering of the story? >> bill, i'm not saying this just out of some political interest. i'm saying that our trust as a nation is built on our ability to know that when our president, whoever he is, democrat or republican, looks us in the eye and tells us something, we ought to know he is telling us the truth.

we ought to know that the administration is not covering up something either for their gain or for whatever reason it is. now we know that we have not been leveled with as it relates to the situation in libya. so it is not just about the specific incident. it is about the fact that this white house has been discredited and its credibility, certainly the promises of transparency have been completely decimated by their actions. bill: very strong language but i know you thought about this. thank you for coming on today. we will see how this unfolds now as we continue to get information by the day. governor, thank you. >> thank you, bill. bill: we'll see you this weekend in prime time. martha. martha: well a horrific scene out of minneapolis. a workplace shooting leaves four innocent people dead. what we're now learning this morning about this gunman. >> in a wonderful neighborhood and a wonderful business we have had a horrible tragedy. >> this is not a everyday thing. this is something we see on the news in other parts of the country, not here in

minneapolis. when we got married. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule.

bill: the u.s. postal service on the brink of defaulting yet again. the agency saying it will miss a $5.6 billion payment it owes treasury on sunday. that is the second default in as many months. we're told it will not affect operations. postal service reported billions of losses. considering closing hundreds of facilities and dropping saturday mail delivery but business as usual. miss mart that. martha: we are getting new details about the tragic work place shooting that took place in minneapolis. the gunman killed four people and wounded four others before taking his own life. kfsb paul bloom live at the

shooting for us. good morning, paul. >> reporter: good morning, martha. sad day here in minneapolis. the, just beginning to learn, put names and faces to this tragedy, confirming this morning that the founder of this company, accent signage, was among those killed. the man by the name of ruben rahmen. came here with nothing. started this business in his basement. made this business into a national model. this company focus on signs, signs that include braille for the blind, businesses all around. he was gunned down apparently by a former employee. initial reports this gunman was laid off early yesterday morning. he came back late in the day. apparently armed and apparently on a mission to kill. again confirming the death of the founder of the company, two top executives fighting for their lives at a nearby hospital and three others dead before the gunman took his own life, shooting himself in the head in the basement of this

building behind me. martha: what an you have a full, awful story. what do we know about the gunman, what about his life? >> reporter: very little right now. initial reports, newspapers reporting this morning that minneapolis police did raid his home. it is not too far from here overnight in their full swat gear to make sure i'm told it was given the all-clear. laid off apparently early yesterday morning. some colleagues this morning didn't quite fit into the workplace. still could not believe he would be responsible for this. we're waiting confirmation on names, identities and exactly a motive for minneapolis police. we hope to have that in next few hours. martha: terrible story. thank you very much for your reporting. we'll be back with more on that later. bill: governor romney taking his message to the heart of a big democratic constituency in a critical state. so what is his strategy? we'll drill down on that for you. martha: weeks after a deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in libya the white house message is still evolving on

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martha: well lawmakers are stepping up pressure now on the obama administration, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle we should point out including john kerry. they want to reveal all the details of the deadly libyan attack. after two weeks of continuous clanking stories on this, arizona senator john mccain says it is disgraceful that the white house blamedded attack initially on quote, spontaneous protests. here he is. >> the thing that is disturbing about this naivete, the fundamental ignorance of warfare. look, this was an attack on its face. heavy weapons, mortars, a, well-synchronized direct fire and indirect fire attack. the thing that is really scary about it is, that the people in the region believe the united states is weak and withdrawing. martha: john bolton joins me now, former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. fox news contributor. is he right?

>> absolutely. look, i think there are only two explanations for the administration's performance. one they're engaged in a cover-up because it is politically inconvenient to find terrorism not defeated as the president has said. the other is that the president's radical ideology has created a world view where he does not process facts that are inconsistent with that ideology. everything's fine in libya. al qaeda's not a threat. there is no global war on terrorism. i absolutely hope for the sake of the country that it is the first explanation, that at least would indicate they understand reality and they're trying to cover it up. if it is the second and they don't understand reality which is what i fear we're in four for a rough four years if he is reelected. >> look at polls whether it is better be to feared than loved. a lot of people said this administration wants to be loved in many cases. hear is the first one. have the obama

administration policies made the u.s. more or less feared around the world? 42% say less feared. 42% so difference and 13% say more feared. have the u.s. policies made the u.s. more or less respected around the world? 39% say less respected. what do you make of these numbers? >> from the perspective of the american public they see accurately what happened. the u.s. is seen as weak as senator mccain said. declining influence dramatically in the middle east. billing out of iraq. intending to pull out of afghanistan. having a limp wristed reaction to assassination of four american diplomats. doing essentially nothing about the penetration of security of our embassies in multiple cities in the region. that is the tip of the iceberg in the last two weeks. this builds on a pattern of 3 1/2 years of failed leadership by the administration. martha: obviously there is a lot of political

ramifications to this. i want to play two pieces of sound that are sort of prominent voices in this story. and the first one is from susan rice, now about 12 days ago. the second is mike huckabee just moments ago on our air. let's listen to those. >> what happened initially was it was a spontaneous reaction to what just transpired in cairo. as a consequence of the video that, people gathered outside the embassy and then, it grew very violent. >> i think frankly if, you know, this issue really gets the traction that it deserves, and let me say, that it deserves, let's go back. richard nixon was forced out of office because he lied. and because he covered some stuff up. i will be blunt and tell you this. nobody died in watergate. we have some people who are dead because of this. there are questions to be answered and americans ought to demand to get answers. martha: pretty strong words there from governor mike huckabee. what do you think about that

watergate comparison? >> well i think the point he made about the credibility of the president is absolutely critical. and i think obama does have a credibility problem. now, whether, as i say because he is directing a cover-up, or because his world view is so divorced from reality that he can't process facts when they contradict that world view, we'll have to see but i think this should be an issue of political debate. we have suffered a terrible set back with four diplomats killed and the impression, reinforced around the world that essentially you can attack american embassy facilities with impunity. martha: let me ask you this. because there is a big issue right now about the fact within 24 hours of the benghazi attack it was designated a terror attack in such a way, inside the administration that allowed certain things to happen, in terms of assets, with regard to tripoli and benghazi. can they argue that that doesn't mean that they knew at that point that it was a terrorist attack but they

were putting that in motion as sort of a preemptive measure to sort of get all their ducks in a row on the ground and to have options available to them? would that be a plausible argue on their behalf to you? >> given their performance over the past two weeks i think they will argue almost anything at this stage but i think what is really telling that the head of the counterterrorism center testified in open session to congress a week after the attack that he viewed it as a terrorist action. at the same time the administration was still trying to peddle the line that it was all a spontaneous reaction to the muhammad video. i think it's clear and i think fox reporting has shown what was going on inside the intelligence community and the defense establishment indicates they thought almost from the outset it was a terrorist attack. martha: ambassador bolton, thank you very much. >> thank you. bill: so are both candidates getting a fair shake in the media? there are new questions whether or not news networks are favoring one candidate over the other.

newspapers as well and web sites. some polling results that tell an interesting story about the information you're getting. we'll share that with you in a moment. martha: plus if you don't pay your taxes that's not a good thing, right? the federal government will come knocking on your door in no time. but what if the federal government doesn't pay its taxes, what happens then? tell me what you think should happen. send me a tweet @marthamaccallum. there it is at the bottom of your screen. we'll be right back. like cinnamon chex, honey nut chex, and chocolate chex... we're inereal heaven. so thanks. from the mcgregors, 'cause we love chex.

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serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. if you've had enough, ask your dermatologist about enbrel. bill: there are new questions about the media coverage of the presidential campaign. brand new fox polling numbers nearly half of voters in america think news organizations mostly defend president obama and attack governor mitt romney, about three times as many who say it is the other way around. what is up with this? juan williams, fox news political analyst. mary katharine ham,

editor-at-large of hotair.com and fox news contributor. good morning to both of you on a friday. is there truth to this? >> i mean i think this is just a fact of life. as somebody right of center i deal with this a lot of the time. i don't think you can sort of make a bunch of excuses for it but i do think this isn't just in my imagination. if you look back to evan thomas who used to work in "newsweek" saying 2004, media might be worth five to 15 points to john kerry. that is election. bill: that is big deal when the country is kind of 50/50. you say fact of life. >> people go into media are mostly liberal. there are new options opening for conservatives and more voices are heard than ever before. we're farther along to correct things. bill: do you sit back and accept it? say that is just the way it is? >> no. these days especially last couple of years there are flourishing groups that do conservative work, do

investigative work on things mainstream press doesn't do investigative work on and you're hearing those offices more and more often. bill: juan, is there truth to this number? >> sure. especially if you're talking to republicans. republicans see a bias in the media. the way the fox poll put it, press spending more time, attacking romney and defending obama and attacking romney? people see it is about defending obama, attacking romney. pew did a similar poll last week, if you ask the question differently, is the coverage fair, then it comes up, basically split. people think that coverage is fair. they think it will more critical when you boil it down of romney. bill: what is the difference between the pew poll and what we found there? >> well because the way the question was worded. if you ask people is it defending obama, attacking romney, i think people especially republicans say that is exactly right. that is what mary katherine is saying. if you ask them a matter of

fairness is it fair coverage? for example, when you see mitt romney make the 47% comment or put clint eastwood on the stage and press makes a big deal out of it essentially you're feeding monster. you can't criticize the monster for eating. bill: there is that number again, isn't it, mary katherine. no, no the irony of what juan just said, 47% on that tape is matched by the polling number we put up. the larger point with that juan, i will let mary katherine weigh in on this, it going and going and feeds on itself without any breaks on it. >> let me give juan two examples of unfairness as i see them. first of all alberto gonzales heard a whole lot about firing lawyers at doj. on the other hand we have fast and furious where people are actually dead because the united states government was moving illegal guns to drug cartel members and we don't hear so much about that and it is not connected to barack obama and nobody has left the administration. it's crazy to me. on 9/11 if president bush

had messed up the response to a terrorist attack in libya, on the anniversary of 9/11 and lied about it, for a week and a half, you can not tell me that we would have heard the end of it, ever? >> on both those instances, you know i just want to say as a reporter, in terms of "fast and furious", this is a program started before obama came into office but and i think --. bill: she is talking about general coverage. with regard to libya, that is tough thing to argue against. >> that's basically like conspiracy theory, saying we think you should be more aggressive and rougher with with obama. >> it is not a conspiracy theory a thought exercise. >> the press should hold people in power accountable. i will say this to you both. last time when john mccain was running in '08, you know what, people thought the press was more unfair to mccain and they do think they're unfair to mitt romney. this is ongoing lament coming from conservatives about the coverage.

but again i just want to point out. when you ask about fairness, is the press fair to romney, fair to obama, according to pew the american people are basically yeah, they're fair to both of them. bill: mary katherine, one moment. because when these fox polling numbers came out yesterday. this is what popped on to our desk "time" magazine. mitt romney on the cover. what is it about? mormonism, faith. yet again there it is. what republicans argue is this, name a story that put mitt romney in a positive light? >> well, yeah, you have seen some, i guess you could say "newsweek" did the anti-obama obama cover. i will give them credit for that. about the "time" magazine story you ask the press secretary at the white house who used to work for time. this is perennial problem. the press at mids it. jake tapper said to laura ingraham said i think the press was largely unfair to hillary clinton against obama and john mccain against obama and tipped the election in obama's favor. not me who thinks it, the

pretty itself looking at itself maybe we haven't been the fairest. bill: juan you're squinting when she is talking there. >> giving me a side eye? >> i think she's on target when she says if you ask reporters, are they more likely to be democrats or republicans, they're more likely to be democrats and liberals not any question. the other side of this if you ask owners, ask editors they're more likely to be republican. i think the american people are smart enough to reach conclusions for themselves. i don't think anybody is selling them a bill of goods and bunch of dummies who swallow it whole cloth. i think people are critical consumers of news media, when you ask them about defending obama and attacking romney, that's why you get results in fox poll. when you ask him about fairness is it fair that's when you get the different set of results, you know what, people are getting in some sense what they deserve when they do stupid things. >> like mess up in benghazi. >> the rest, fox poll, the next question was does the

american press spend too much time covering silly things. that was overwhelming. people think the press spends too much time on celebrities and gossip. >> guilty as charged there. but this election is a big, big deal. we've given it fair attention. thank you, juan, thank you, mari catherine. have a great weekend. to you as well. what do you think about this? is there truth in that? foxnews.com /americasnewsroom. bya box leave it there on the question. e-mail us at hemmer@foxnews.com. or twitter, @billhemmer. martha: i don't think we cover a lot of silly stuff. there are a lot of silly stuff we leave on the table. bill: during the commercial break. martha: that's when we get to the silly season. what is coming up? disappointing new numbers, how about that on the u.s. con me as we head to the fiscal cliff so talked about but perhaps not talked about enough in this election. what is the white house doing to deal with it the coming fiscal cliff?

the reports we are getting may shock you. bill: mars rover still going, martha. this thing one heck of a battery charge. finding things on mars. the new pictures and what they mean for the search of life on the red planet. we'll show you that. martha: that is not silly ♪ spread a little love today ♪ ♪ spread a little love my way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ [ female announcer ] fresh milk and real cream makes philadelphia and the moment a little richer. makes philadelphia and the moment

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bill: as promised we're going to mars. fascinating new discovery from the red planet. curiosity rover beaming back pictures scientists say show a dried up ancient stream. see the evidence there that water once flowed on surface of mars and suggested that

the planet could have supported life billions of years ago, that is before cable tv. pebbles from mars, side by side with pebbles from earth. they say both rocks could only be created by flowing water. martha: i have to agree. they look very similar. cool stuff. let's talk about protests happening in europe dal. while the spanish government is set to reveal just how much trouble its banking system is really in. [explosion] [gunfire] [shouting]. martha: that is the scene in madrid over the course of this week. riot police clashing with protesters there. tens of thousands of angry people out there really complaining about another round of steep budget cuts. here's a little bit of context for spain. unemployment rate is at

25.1%. that is the highest unemployment rate in the e.u.. youth unemployment hovers near 50%. which may explain the age of some of the protesters out there. explain is the 13th largest economy in the world. the fourth largest economy in the eurozone and look at the shape it's in. amy kellogg joins me live in london. amy, spain is the one country everybody is talking about this week. we know several countries have big issues. why the focus on spain? >> reporter: i think, martha, as you mentioned and you showed us there were very violent clashes between protesters and the police this week. this was after prime minister rahoy laid out a whole new list of austerity measures people saying how much more can we take? then there is the report card anticipated later today about the true state of spain's embattled banks, banks that have taken a hit because the property bubble burst. some fear this report card

could really just fuel further insecurity leading to sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. for example if bonds are degraded to junk status, it would mean most institutional investors would have to sell the spanish bonds on monday morning which you can imagine would hardly improve the situation. some in spain bristled american reporting about people eating out of trashcan. a spanish contact there i spoke to are very sensitive about the way they're being portrayed and believe we're exaggerating their problems. martha, as you pointed out the fact remains, unemployment is at 25%. youth unemployment at 50%. martha: wow! it's sad to see what's playing out on the streets there. and italy is also in very rough shape. so what is happening there, amy? >> well, prime minister mario monte said that italians, he admitted this, having to endure unprecedented painful measures when it comes to austerity cuts. we saw some demonstrations today in rome.

big trade unions marching but the bottom line in italy is that the newspapers are full of stories of core are up shun every day. politicians using public funds for private expenditures. hundreds of mps right now are under investigation. so reading about all of this in the papers is particularly hard for a public that is being asked to enendure cuts in salaries, pensions and health care. put it simply, countries like spain, germany, italy have same interest rates. they haven't dealt with inefficiencies in the system and haven't dealt with growth and it is exploding as you see. back to you. martha: all the issues coming home to roost. it is a lessen for the world. we hope they straighten it out. bill: some issues affect us at home. on the big board on wall street on friday, influence of spain, issues they're having and manufacturing number just came out of chicago was not good. showed a contraction for the first time in three years on

manufacturing. in a moment hear new polling numbers in race for the white house. where the candidates stand today. chris wallace is here to analyze. we'll talk to him right after this [ female announcer ] the next generation of investing technology is now within your grasp with the e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are and what they're doing with free streaming quotes, news, analysis and even your trade ticket. everything exactly the way you want it, all on one page.

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martha: we start with this fox news alert on a friday morning. defense secretary leon panetta is about to hold a news conference. you can bet that there will be questions about the attacks in benghazi which he just recently called a terrorist attack. that is going to be central to the issues that are addressed there. we are going to listen into it, monitor it, we'll bring in the sound bytes or take you there if it gets heathed and interesting. we'll keep you posted on what is going on there. back to election news now, the battle for the white house is heating up. we've got to brand-new fox polls that show the obama-biden team leading romney-ryan at this point check it out 48% of likely voters say that they would choose the democratic ticket

while 43% say they would choose the republican team, and we are about 40 days to go with a brand-new our right now in "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning on a friday. the numbers well within the margin of error but troubling for the romney people. martha mitt romney knee team. martha: chris wall as joins us now. what do you make of the number this morning? >> it's not good news for mitt romney and it continues what we're seeing in a lot of other numbers. the national numbers are not as important as the key swing state numbers and those all show by margins of 5 points, 7 points, 9 points in states like florida, and virginia, and ohio that the obama camp is out to a lead. i don't think the margin is as information as the trend and the trend is definitely at this point towards the president. martha: let's take a look at another number that is one of the internal numbers in this fox poll and it goes to, is it

extremely important to you that your candidate wins. we have it's ebbs tree lee important my candidate wins, the number is 63% now. obama supporters 59%, it's extremely important. this obviously goes to intensity. how fired up people are at the bases of both of these parties. it looks like the obama camp there is gaining a lot of traction as well. >> it was a 10 point lead in terms of great interest now it's a 4-point lead. this all tracks with the sense that the election is moving in obama's direction, which is why this debate next wednesday, the first presidential debate is so information, because it rile is romney's last, best chance to change the dynamic: people ask me how does very to do it. i think it's very similar

people. tens of millions are americans will be watching that debate. after that they have to say, i was for obama, now i think i'm for romney. he if he can achieve that. it doesn't have to be a knockout. people have to have a second thought. i thought i was for the president, and now i'm not. if he will have achieved that that will be a very sec full bee date for him. and that is a tall order. martha: some pry people away that are already decided is a more middable task for mitt romney. you can read this their press releases that the romney camp is working hard to lower the expectations. they are saying president obama has a lot more experience in debay. he's none nor being good at this. i guess that's par for the course but it seems that is definitely their message right now. >> both sides are doing it. normally they are building their guy up and tearing the other guy down. in the days before a debate they

all engage and as long as i've been covering presidential politics they engage in this sill plea expectations game. if my guy doesn't drool all over the podium he's had a good night. you know, it's sill plea, they are going to be judged by how they do on that night and to play this silly expectations game. the one thing i disagree with what you said, martha is the idea that people are locked in. i don't think that is true. i think there is a lot of fluid today tee here. romney has to make two cases, one of the things that i think is hurting him is that since the democratic convention a lot of people are beginning to think, well maybe the economy isn't so bad. he has to remind them the economy really is bad. no president has been reelected with unemployment this high since fdr in 1940. no president has been elected with gdp growth this low since they started measuring it in 1930. he's got to make that point. the harder thing for him is he's got to persuade people in a way

that he hasn't so far, i will make it better and obama won't. he has to make the affirmative case for himself. it's a choice not a referendum. i'm going up to new hampshire today we'll be on the campaign trail with paul ryan. we'll talk to him about campaign debate strategy, foreign policy, which i think the romney calm is about to make a big, new push on as there are growing questions about what the president knew and when he knew it about the raid in benghazi that killed the four americans and also about the state of the economy. martha: thank you, chris. that will be really interesting. we are all looking forward to the debates and coverage. it's an important night for both candidates. in particular looking at these polls for mitt romney. thank you, chris, see you soon. bill: it's almost a two-front battle right now, the economic and foreign policy. governor romney campaigning in pennsylvania today, a state that went for mitt romney. he scored big there four years ago. are the polls tightening? john roberts is live in

pennsylvania. >> he's here at the valley forge military academy which you may know is general norman schwartz coff's alma mater. here in pennsylvania 40,000 jobs may be on the line if the defense cuts goes through an continues to hammer president obama on the economy insisting a doubling down on his accusation that we cannot afford another four years of this economic policy. >> sonar we are growing slowly than aoefpb of the last two years. these are the results of policies that have not reignited our economy. this president in the light of that has a plan for the country which unfortunately is srurt tule lee identical to what he's been putting in place the last four years, the plan that did

not work. >> that was governor romney at a fund-raiser in washington d.c. last night. he continues to point out the contradictions in president obama's economic argument saying back in 2009 that he would have this thing fixed within three years, now saying, bill that no one could fix it in four years and he needs more time. bill: next week we'll be talking all about the debates a couple of days before the season begins. what can you tell us about what the romney team is going public with at the moment? >> as you heard chris wall as saying a minute ago the game is raising expectations for your opponent while lowering your own. the obama campaign is saying he hasn't had a debate in the last four years. the romney campaign saying president obama has had eight one-on-one debates. the obama campaign released this web video which points out what it saeurs contradictions in what governor romney has been saying on a number of different

issues. if you look very closely at that ad a lot of those contradictions are suspect. at the same time romney senior adviser beth myers put out a memo which says that it's clear that president obama will use his ample rhetorical gifts and debating experiences to one end attacking governor romney since he won't and can't talk about his record he's going to talk about mitt romney. both sides raising those expectations. governor romney making it clear that during the debate wednesday in denver he will aggressively defend his record and beat back any miss characte characterizations from president obama that come his way. mr. romney has to have a big, good night on wednesday and definitely they are trying to plan, bill at this point, he's going to try to have one. bill: the billboard shows results from pennsylvania from 2008. this was a state that was heavily targeted by both parties. in 2008 pennsylvania went blue, it went democrat and barack obama won the state by 11 points over senator mccain 55-44%.

on the map behind me senator mccain's counties are in red, barack obama's counties are in blue. you see where senator mccain did so well in the countryside. here in pittsburgh, ala againee county is where barack obama one. you go over to the southeastern part of the state and look how democratic this went. this is chester k-pt, delaware county right here where mitt romney is today. an easy winner. all these areas around philadelphia, montgomery county, heavily democratic. philadelphia county. over will ming 84-16% four years for barack obama. mitt romney trying to raise a little bit of money, trying to raise some awareness. four of the five most populated counties in the state of pennsylvania are right down here in the area of philadelphia. that shows you a little bit as to why the importance of visiting there yet again today. no republican has won pennsylvania since 1988.

20 electoral votes on the line in that state. martha, back to you. martha: that's why romney is there today no doubt. everybody is out there trying to win all of those electoral votes in pennsylvania, so what about what is going on back in washington where they are facing the next fiscal cliff? >> we have a federal government, the financial house is not in order. we have $16 trillion of iou's out there in the world and we are going to have to barrow anothebar borrow another trillion or too. martha: bob woodward on that. what is the president doing about the situation to stop the country from going over the fiscal cliff? have you heard anything much about that lately? we'll talk about that. bill: that blows your mind. the desperate search today for survivors of this plane crash. we'll tell you where. martha: the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya now being called a terror attack by the obama administration.

why this could be the sign that the arab spring could be headed for an ugly winter, folks, we'll talk about that when we come back. >> as we determined the details of what took place there, and how that attack took place, that it become clear that there were terrorists who had planned that attack. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego. prego?! but i've bought ragu for years. [ thinking ] woer what other questionable choices i've made? i choose date number 2! whooo! [ sigh of relf ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. [ sigh of relf ] i was in an accident. i lost my hands, my feet. shriners did a lot more than just heal me. they helped me put my whole life back together. (vo) send your love to the rescue. (vo) donate to shriners hospitals today.

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bill: new cellphone video out of nepal that shows a deadly plane crash. 19 people killed after the plane went down after take off. the plane hitting a vulture and was trying to turn back. officials not saying yet if the plane caught fire before or after it crashed. it was headed for a trek in the fall. martha: back to the economy now. there are dramatic new numbers that we got on economic growth this week that really show a

stagnant economy. initially gdp growth estimate was up 1.7%, which is not a good number. you want to be north of 2% if you're going anywhere in this economy. then they took it down to the actual number which we got yesterday which got very little attention, really. 1.3% is the down regard revision on gdp for the second quarter. meanwhile the country is heading towards what has been talked about so much, the fiscal cliff that will kick in when we get into 2013, when the bush tax cuts expire and we've got 600 billion in spending cuts waiting around the corner. bob woodward talked about this. he talked about the efforts to avoid the fist alcliff and basically said that his reporting reveals that they have hit a wall because the president has a failure to community with lawmakers according to bob woodward, here is what he said. >> most of the most astonishing things is he doesn't have that relationship with his party

leaders, harry reid has to go into the oval office with his chief of staff to make a point to the president that on these negotiations they didn't have a fullback plan. martha: can we get anywhere with any of this is the big question. tucker carlson shows me editor of "the daily callerrer" and a contribut fox news contributor and i'm joined by charles payne. nice to have you both. it's very distress tog a lot of peopling to a lot of people to look at the growth number and feel that it's not being discussed enough in this campaign. we are headed towards a fiscal cliff as very clear when whe when you look the at numbers. >> a lot of republicans and conservatives fume when they look at the lack of press coverage about the state of the economy. i think the truth is that the reality matters in the end.

people don't need to watch on television these numbers, they see them. if you don't live in washington, or new york or los angeles, or nantucket or jackson hole you're very aware of how low the growth numbers are. to put it in some perspective electorally. the last time anyone ran with an unemployment number in this neighborhood, it was 7 pwoeup 7.1. and the growth rate was 11% . double digit growth. what this president is attempting to do is without precedent. martha: i want to get into the politics in the moment and the woodward book in a moment. charles, on the surface are we heading towards another recession? >> you can easily argue that. these numbers are a business mal. we are free-falling with respect to gdp. this morning we got numbers on personal income and consumption last month, another huge disappointment. we talk about main street people kind of know but i don't think

they actually under the trend. this is like the proverbial no small that is running down the bill and quickly becoming a gigantic boulder. numbers out of chicago about manufacturing there, they are contracting there since september of 2009. all of these economic signs are horrific. the mainstream media -- this should be headline news, quite frankly. martha: and you would also think that because this is the number one job of the president, that there would be meetings going on and there would be discussions happening, that there would be some sense of urgency in dealing with this issue in doing the presidential job and taking it on. look what is happening in the streets of spain. you look at what is happening in italy and look at our numbers, and let's play this bob woodward sound byte buy goes t which goes to this effect. >> it ally a natured leaders,

and he invites leaders to the white house for the super bowl. they go and spend 15 seconds with him. >> according to woodward there is no real relationship with congress and no real relationship with the business community. how could we have any hope to take on this problem? tucker? >> well, you weigh dealing with this crisis against the opportunity to go on letterman and it's an easy -- [laughter] martha: it would be funny if it weren't so. >> it's literally true. one of the under reported facts of this administration and i think the woodward book gets to this is the profound isolation, the lack of outreach to people who might be able to help including a lot of winnable business leaders who aren't terribly ideological, willing to partner with the white house and have been alienated again and begin and again. their main diplomat charged with building relationships with businesses is valerie jarrad. you can't find one person that has anything nice to say about

valerie jarrad or i will buy you dinner. >> he chatted with steinberg 15 seconds before the game then he went down to the front row to watch, president obama did, let's look at rest of it if we can, that was it 15 seconds. seidenberg complained to valerie jarrod. she said you got to be in the room with him for 5 minutes, you should be happy. >> believe me the business community gets the message and that's why they are h u.n. kering down. they are inch tim date on by theithe attack on success abroad. they gave a lot of hints about a infrastructure bank and things like this. in the meantime i would say to the general public maybe it's interesting that honey boobo's

sister had a hand with two thumbs, but this economy is falling apart. don't be followed by the stock market and popularity polls we are really getting into a crisis situation right now. martha: is the romney campaign doing enough to address this issue? >> their belief is in the end the facts make the case for them. the federal reserve printing money thatee values the dollar is an issue that they could hit a little heard. there is a big receptive audience for it. martha: you guys are great. great to see you both. bill: solyndra take two, it might be happening right now. the administration giving a big chunk of your tax dollars to another solar panel company. we'll tell you how that is working out today. >> $14 trillion owed to the government by the government. how does that workout.

why the irs might have to give up ever collecting the money from itself.

bill: your taxpayer dollars could be funding a possible sequel to solyndra. solo power is now drawing comparisons to the company that filed bankruptcy last year. they are getting $170 million in loan guarantees. they are said to make flexible solar panels. they also get $219 million in private funding. dan springer is looking at all of this checking into the solar panel company in portland, oregon. is this another solyndra from the making? >> well, time will tell, bill,

certainly. yesterday at the grand opening there was a lot of optimism as you would expect. solo power has hired 60 people to work their first production line. the hope is to have 450 people and four lines in a couple of years. they have sales more than they can fill right now. the public has so much money invested. by the end of the year solo power will start spending that $197 million federal loan. state and local governments have kicked in $56 million in tax credits and loans environmental groups say it's worth the gamble. >> we are just on the cusp of a whole revolution. it will be a lot of different companies, many of which will fail, but the key ones will succeed which are going to be leading us those ways. >> well certainly the obama administration is oepg for a success story. yesterday we learned that the president of solo power donated more than $30,000 to then candidate obama's campaign in

2008, bill. bill: what are analysts saying about the likely outcome for this. dan? >> reporter: we talked to lot of them they are running from skepticism to down right pessimism. they say that, you know, this has been a dismal failure, all of the solar power companies that the u.s. has invested in. on top of solyndra's half billion dollars failure panel manufacturers in colorado went bankrupt costing packs payers $70 million. if solo power fails the administration would be 0-3. >> it's a terrible risk. this is a program that should not even exist, even if the risk was low, it's not a proper function of government to be a venture capital fund. >> reporter: the reason why we have done so poorly in making solar panels in this country, bill is because china has a 30% price advantage. all the government money that has gone into solar panel manufacturing so far has been

wasted, bill. bill: dan springer, thank you, portland, oregon on that. we'll see how that goes in time. martha: the obama administration has been under fire this week for what they new and when they knew it. >> the story is tu is absolutely wrong. we were not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the u.s. embassy was imminent. martha: what the white house didn't tell you about the attack in benghazi that now has even some democrats asking a lot of questions about all this. bill: also a man shooting a suspected burglar, apparently breaking into his neighbor's home. but what he found out will change his life forever. [ owner ] i need to expand

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martha: take a look at this picture on your screen now, folks. you know what that is? that is where they think gym knee hoffa's body may be buried, 35 years later they are digging for soil samples underneath this drive way when these things come up they check it out. there was a person who said now that they think they saw someone then being buried under that driveway. so out everybody comes, they check the soil samples and all of this happens with the backdrop of folks saying, they don't really think the timeline adds up on this one. we will keep you posted. that is the scene in roseville, michigan today. bill: digging up homes again.

new fallout from the attack on the consulate in benghazi. the u.s. now temporarily pulling out more staff members from it's embassy from the capitol city of tripoli saying they are leaving for security reasons. the obama administration is putting out tkaulg versions of the assault. last week secretary of state hillary clinton calling it a spontaneous outburst of violence. >> the office of the director of national intelligence has said we had no actionable intelligence that an attack on our post in benghazi was planned or imminent. bill: fast forward now to yesterday, defense secretary leon panetta now saying the attack was very much premeditated and not spur of the moment. >> as we determined the details of what took place there, and how that attack took place, that it became clear that there were terrorists who had planned that attack. bill: add up all the turmoil in the middle east and many wonder

if the arab spring is turning into a islam i can baker. mike baker, president of diligence llc a global intelligence and security firm, mike good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: where are you now on this story? >> my opinion, my believe, based on a lot of experience working overseas and having had contact with the state department over the years it hasn't changed since the dust settled on this unfortunate attack on september 11th in benghazi. it was self-evident, it was clear to anybody who worked in this field for any time that this wasn't some spontaneous attack, and it was also clear that the primary problem here is that the state department didn't do their job, and that job should have been done a year ago. they should have properly -- they should have properly assessed the ritz being i risk in benge. one of them is to go out and

properly assess risk and make the property security arrangements for their personnel and facilities. they knew benghazi was a war zone, they knew we had al-qaida elements. tons of heavy weaponry pilfered from the armories. it was a high threat area. they did not provide the proper security. i'm not talking about a few days before the attack, i'm talking about when they put the benghazi consulate in there a year ago. bill: do consulate get marine guards or is that just nor embassy work? >> no they can be given and they should have been given a marine security guard attach. ment those young men and women are fan tas take a fantastic to what they do. they need to be on site to do their job. bill: why would the administration handle it this way sth. >> i can't believe they are so stupid as to believe their own narrative from the outset, so i think the only conclusion here is that they understood that they had screwed up, and that is

not a good narrative two months before an election and so they chose to go with what appeared to be possible, by saying it was spontaneous. they said look we had these riots, and who knew, and it just happened. it kind of pwaog else the mind and it makes you think that they believe the american public is stupid or naive. bill: these state department cables that some are calling for to be made public, you've had experience with this. what would they say or reveal? what they telwould they tell us about ambassador stevens and how he was feeling about list own safethis own safety and concerns. >> i believe they are cables probably over the security of benghazi probably from the very outset of that facility once the dust settled on the revolution. you're probably looking at months and months and months where there are cables going back and forth between washington and libya talking about the poor security situation in benghazi, concerns

over the facility that is there, concerns over the security of those personnel, and for whatever reason the state department and this administration didn't act on that. bill: regardless of whether you or somebody else stands on top of 0 desk and streams for them at some point will you see them? >> not unless this dream keeps getting beaten. bill: it's possible they never go public? isn't that freedom of information or not? >> it should be, look there was outrage over the white house intelligence leaks. outrage, oh, my gosh and how could this happen? where is that investigation in it's completely disappeared. i suspect because the white house probably thinks -- most of the media will go along with this. i think they are going to get a pass on this unfortunately. bill: well see about that. mike baker with us today out of connecticut today, good to see you, mike. martha: if you own a business you have to fork over the payroll taxes of course in every paycheck. why are so many federal agencies it turns out according to a new study way behind in paying their

payroll taxes? a stunning new report and a huge dollar figure attached to this. bill: an out of control car slamming into a home. the family that lives there was sleeping inside. why this could have been much worse. ♪ you do ♪ something to me ♪ that nobody else could do

bill: here we go at 19 minutes before the our hour. a severe thunderstorm slamming colorado springs with heavy rain, high winds and hail. folks there say it was so thick it looked like snow. that would be incredible this time of year, even there. police blaming three minor car crashes on slick roads. a brazen jailbreak in iraq. military storming a prison in saddam hussein's hometown freeing about 90. inmates some described as hard-core al-qaida militants, this all after an intense firefight. 12 people killed in that, ten of them were guards. australia rolling out an aggressive new shark policy to track and kill the sharks if

spotted near swimmers. a major shift from previous rules in that country which allowed hunting only after attacks. all this after a record five deadly attacks so far this year. martha: a shocking government report this morning that reveals that 70 federal agencies owe about $14 million in unpaid payroll taxes. some of the agencies are more than three years behind in paying their payroll taxes and the irs may never see that money. so how does this work? and is there a a double standard here. david williams is president of the packs payers alliance and joins me now. good to have you here today. >> good morning. this is frustrating. american taxpayers live in fear of the irs, every year april 15th comes and goes and we have to get our tax returns in, have to make sure that we have all the t's crossed all the i's dotted all the numbers

right. federal agencies don't really have to do that. martha: it's shocking. 70 agencies had 126 delinquent accounts and owed some $14 million in unpaid taxes, and apparently this has been going on for years and everybody just sort of hraobgt looks the other way. >> that's the problem it has been going on for years and it's not an isolated incident. we are talking all of these agencies. its not just one agency. let's be honest, $14 million isn't going to solve our financial woes of the country. but it's symbolic when they say you have to pay your taxes and we are going to audit you. we have to pay new taxes under obama and you don't have to pay taxes? it's a head scratcher. martha: these businesses, that money would fall to the bottom line if they didn't have to set that money aside. where is the money going with

the federal agencies? >> who knows where it's going. it's medicare tax, social security taxes. these are two trust funds that need the money. i mean we are running out of money in social security. medicare there is a big debate about how do we fix immediate today wear. first of all, let's have the agencies pay into the medicare fund so we could figure out how to fix it. martha: good point. is anybody -- it's one thing to sit here and say, gee, that is shocking and awful but is anything going to come of it in? you'll have a few members of song probably look into it for maybe a month or so, and then it will fade away. that is the problem with congress and the government, is that the inspector general, they do great work and this is the entity that put this report out. they do fantastic work but there is no follow-up. it's frustrating because the taxpayers want to see the follow-up, we are seeing a growing disconnect between citizens, taxpayers and washington d.c. martha: people find it pretty shocking 14 million when you say

as you look at big budget it's a drop in the bucket. 14million is not worth pursuing but there is time to pursue people boundless? david, thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. good to talk to you this morning. maybe some congressman or congresswoman will take that one up. bill: gregg jarrett rolling our way. gregg: 39 days until the election. mitt romney speaking live. we'll hear from them. battleground state polling from the "wall street journal" and brand-new fox news polls, we'll tell you about that. plus the dramatic developments in libya. we will be speaking with lindsey graham the u.s. senator, why the white house message has been muddled so far and take a look at the political fallout from

all of that. have you heard about the next generation of melody sizes? you'll not believe some of these. they desolve inside of you, kind of coolish kind of creepy, we'll talk about it. bill, back to you. bill: kind of convenient. thank you, see you in 15 minutes. there is grand new video that shows a terrifying scene in the middle of the night. look at this. a driver losing control, crashing into a home in staten island, new york, injuring a 40-year-old woman and her five-year-old daughter. they were sleeping inside the home. both hospitalized, said to be in stable condition. police say the 22-year-old driver was drunk. no charges immediately filed there. across from lady liberty here. martha: that is a bad situation. we wish them well, hope they are doing okay. coming up here, california voters facing a full slate of budget measures this november including one to repeal the death penalty in the state. we've got a tpap debate coming up on that hoa fair & balanced

debate coming up on that hot button issue next.

martha: much has been said about the weapons that syria has and its arsenal that is quite impressive. so now they have taken the move to secure some of their chemical weapons. this is just coming right now from our u.s. defense secretary leon pa net tafpl panetta. he was making statements moments ago. they moved weapons to improve security there but the main stock remains in place and secure under government control which of course is a concern when you look at what is going on on the ground in syria. that just coming in. >> there has been some intelligence that -- with regards to some of these sites that there has been some movement in order to -- for the

syrians to better secure what they -- the chemicals. and so while there's been some limited movement, again the major sites still remain in place, still remain secure. martha: that is leon panetta moments ago, defense secretary. bill: keep and eye on that story. it continues, syria, year and a half down the road. all right now to a new bailout measure starting quite a controversy. it's called proposition 34. it would repeal the death penalty in california after more than three decades of law. douglas kennedy is live in our newsroom here in new york on that. what did you find out, douglas. >> there are currently 725 convicted criminals on death row in california. now some state residents want all of their lives spared, and they are getting support from a famous prosecutor. >> the $184 million that the death penalty is costing, it's a total waste of money.

it's flushing it down the toilet. >> gil garcetti spent 32 years inside the los angeles district attorney's office. >> you prosecuted dozens of death penalty cases. >> we did. we not just prosecuted them but we convicted most of them. >> but garcetti has since changed his mind about giving fell ons the ultimate punishment. he says death penalty cases are simply too expensive and he says he knows from personal experience there is a lot of room for error. >> killing people is a huge responsibility and the criminal justice system isn't always perfect. >> it's not, unfortunately. we are dealing with human beings, so there is fallibility right? >> garcetti is supporting prop 34, which would eliminate the death penalty in california. opponents says he's advocating letting hundreds of killers and rapists off the hook. >> these people are literally the worst of the worst. >> mcgregor scott is a former

u.s. attorney and spokesman for the no on 34 campaign. he says californians should haven't to pay for the extra incarceration of life in prison. >> the taxpayers will be housing and providing medical care for these worst of the worst inmat inmates. >> your critics are asking why you would pay any extra money to house and feed these terrible criminals. >> i'm smiling because that is so misleading. it actually costs substantially less. >> reporter: he says death row inmates often have luxury suites with private cells and it's far less expensive he says to house them with other criminals. that's it from here, back to you bill. bill: we'll see how they vote. thank you douglas kennedy on that story in new york. martha: a heartbreaking store row from connecticut. police say a man shot and killed a masked teenager in self-defense outside his neighbor's house during what appeared to be an attempted robbery, only to discover that

the intruder who you see pictured here was his own son. police have identified the victim as 15-year-old tyler juliano. the incident has left the entire community shocked and stunned. >> lovely little boy, so it's just a trapblg tee. >> it's tragi tragedy. >> it's going to upset this town for a time to come. >> it sounds like a big mistake. i hope they are easy on them. >> they say the teen was armed at the time and no charges have been filed against the father so far. bill: tragic. brand-new polling tphoupl now annumbers now, everything that matters to you in 2012. the head-to-head matchups, who you think will be the candidate to take the country in the right direction. ve lately.

but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.

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♪ . bill: lovely song there. nat king cole. martha: nat king cole, ladies and gentlemen. bill: we'll take that. speaking of "mona lisa", he said, we've got a new art world mastery or mystery developing in switzerland he said. this is a leonardo da vinci's masterpiece hanging in paris at the louvre. "mona lisa" foundation revealed this version along with research hinting that the piece is the work of italian master. whoa. side by side, fair and balanced now. striking resemblance although the new version shows a clearly younger woman. the director of the leonardo da vinci museum in italy calls the painting intriguing but needs further

discovery. martha: unbelievable they're just discovering this? she is younger? bill: check the smile. look at conners of her mouth. is it going up or going down? how is your weekend going to be? is it going to be good? martha: will it go or or go down? have a good one. bill: fierce storm outside. martha: looking better outside t was raining cats and dogs. bill: sunshine for you. martha: thanks for being with us, everybody. we'll he you back on monday. "happening now" starts about right now. jenna: thank you, bill and martha. we have a fox news alert. we have getting information from the court documents released in the colorado movie massacre case. prosecutors say suspect james holmes threatened a professor at university of colorado. subsequently he was denied access to the campus. acrding to the documents we're just getting our first look at.